The title is of course an illusion to Quentin "Pulp Fiction" Tarantino, but the film only shares with Tarantino a decidedly "post-modern" sensibility: for instance geisha in medieval Japan sing American torch songs. Otherwise, the film has much more heart than Tarantino may actually be able to muster.
The movie is actually about three samurai - a young man who's out for revenge; a ruthless ronin sword for hire; and an aging warrior in hiding, who regrets ever having used a sword to kill a man.
Sounds like pretty heavy stuff; but director Hiroyuki Nakano ( who claims in interview that he wanted to make a "nice, peaceful film") adds touches of humor to almost every scene, as well as some amazingly beautiful cinematography. The film, by the way, is largely in black-and-white, with color used sparingly for emphasis. Although the director got into the business making music videos for MTV-Japan, he carefully avoids the usual choppy editing, rapid scene transitions, and kitschy gloss that mark the MTV style. Instead he seems to draw heavily on Japan's first great post-modern director, Beat Takeshi for influence, and admits to watching Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo several times while making the film. So the film has a lot of motionless images, as well as scenes done in single long takes or with very pare editing. I don't know if this makes the film nice or peaceful, but it sure does make it easier to watch than those glaring music vids I personally despise.
A very well-made entertaining film; the DVD also has a "making-of" documentary disc which I found very informative, and entertaining in itself.
The movie is actually about three samurai - a young man who's out for revenge; a ruthless ronin sword for hire; and an aging warrior in hiding, who regrets ever having used a sword to kill a man.
Sounds like pretty heavy stuff; but director Hiroyuki Nakano ( who claims in interview that he wanted to make a "nice, peaceful film") adds touches of humor to almost every scene, as well as some amazingly beautiful cinematography. The film, by the way, is largely in black-and-white, with color used sparingly for emphasis. Although the director got into the business making music videos for MTV-Japan, he carefully avoids the usual choppy editing, rapid scene transitions, and kitschy gloss that mark the MTV style. Instead he seems to draw heavily on Japan's first great post-modern director, Beat Takeshi for influence, and admits to watching Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo several times while making the film. So the film has a lot of motionless images, as well as scenes done in single long takes or with very pare editing. I don't know if this makes the film nice or peaceful, but it sure does make it easier to watch than those glaring music vids I personally despise.
A very well-made entertaining film; the DVD also has a "making-of" documentary disc which I found very informative, and entertaining in itself.